Sandbox Mode is THE fun mode
Both JPG and I have been in sandbox mode for a while now - life is good. Sandbox Mode is also the name of the exhibition I'm curating that's opening next week.
It’s been a couple months since we paused the product, and with it, the hustle and bustle of it all. Of course, Trent, Nic and I cannot be still, so we’ve been tinkering with different ideas, solutions and exploring tons of things. I’ve also been exploring in my own little corner and this month it all sort of begins to start consolidating. The Sandbox mode life is good and much more fun. One gets to adopt different personas, test all the ideas in the world, and have fun. But the itch to have a product is getting harder and harder to scratch as well.
JPG is gearing towards announcing its upcoming drop with an artist that’s been close to us for a long time. We’re also collaborating with a brilliant group of people in an online exhibition with a gift shop (nod to JPG July 2021 and the drop Salt as the Gift Shop) and a lot more. We’ll probably announce it next week. It is such a fun group of collaborators, I am loving every part of this process.
Also next week, but already public, with Stina Gustafsson, my forever collaborator, and Office Impart, who we got to know though hosting their first NFT show on JPG, and customizing our former product, the JPG exhibition interface (rip sweet angel - till we meet again), we’re opening our gallery show at the Office Impart space in Wedding, Berlin. The approach was simple: every party should bring in some artists. I really liked working this way. A wonderful potluck dinner of great people. For this opportunity, I chose to bring Mitch and The Boys of Summer to a gallery setting - as well as The Roedalming Group, who chooses to stay anon and identify itself as a place. We’ve also summoned Cezar Mocan, Andreas Gysin and his cool gadgets, Sara Ludy and Stine Deja. If you are in Berlin next week, I would love to invite you to the opening on the 8th at 18 hs. Just pop by!
On Saturday October 9th, I’ll be taking part of Funding the Commons, a conference in Berlin. My talk is titled “Unpaid position: Building a better and more sustainable future for cultural public goods” and will talk about how unsustainable are most of the things one needs to do to build a career based on soft skills, within cultural organizations. I’ll also try to be positive and include some great organizations that do it right, and some proposed etiquette for those working with companies and people that choose this path.
Shortly after Funding the Commons, I’ll be traveling for a week. Boys Club has invited me to join a panel at Permissionless Austin. We’ll obviously talk art, but more from the angle of everything that crypto culture has made possible for it. My panel is on September 13th on the culture track, and I have no idea why they didn’t add my name to the schedule page - but I’m definitely gonna be there.
After that, I am looking forward to spending some days in San Francisco, as Simon is opening a show that includes Metaverse Landscapes, his paintings about crypto plots of land, plus an installation featuring actual whiteboards he purchased from when Elon Musk auctioned off all the Twitter furniture. There will be an opening and a talk, on September 16th at 4pm, at the Gallery Altman Siegel. If you are interested and in San Francisco, reply to this email and I’ll make sure you get an invite for the opening and talk. Marty Grasser, the artist behind Artblocks’ squares, Vera Molnar + Sotheby’s and the LOVE ATP project, will join Simon in conversation (since Marty created the OG twitter logo!) - it will be really really fun.
I’ve been also writing for Forbes - today I published an article on anonymity featuring many people from different places in the crypto world. Also today, Goethe Institut published my interview with them on digital restitution and blockchain.
As you might have read, JPG was commissioned for an exhibition by a German bank, the Berliner Volksbank. This happened in March when Trent and I were in Dubai for the Global Art Forum, and I was also dumping Goerli on retail, having fun and the bear market scaries hadnt kicked in yet. Many months have passed since then, and we’re a bit more than a month away from the actual exhibition, have a full list of incredible artists - from emerging contemporary ones from the “IRL” world, to the best NFT artists I know, and artists from the former East Germany that at the time they made the works we are displaying, were reflecting on their divided country.
There’s more news looming on the horizon - I just can’t reveal a bunch of them, but I am looking forward to sharing them with you as they become more tangible.
In the meantime, links for this weekend:
Sammy (JPG alumni extraordinaire) and Zerobeta have created one of the most exciting projects around, NFTA. Now that I finally bridged to Base, I’ll be off to play it after sending this newsletter.
This very elegant solution, also by Sammy, that’s also a cool NFT.
Gemma continues to drop stuff I really want. This week, Carrie Chen’s Eye Exercise (Miss America)
Kiwistand (hackernews for crypto without the animosity towards crypto) shipped a new experimental NFT feed. Congrats Tim and Mac! I love Kiwi as a solid alternative to the X feed which really sucks.
Oh, and I joined friend.tech, i am experimenting with the creation of Maria Paula Lifestyle Brand, Goop for Incels. Find me there as maria paula.
The JPG discord has been discussing the many nuances of L1 and L2 minted art, distribution tactics, what it means to mint on which chain. Lots of great voices and angles. General-chat is where the discussion is at.
Till next Friday!